Most Popular Programming Languages of 2013

Social Media and Brand Management in india

Social Media has now become part of everyday life for a majority of online Indians. According to a study on social media usage by The Nielsen Company conducted in collaboration with AbsolutData, nearly 30 million Indians who are online are members of social networking sites and about two-thirds of them spend time on these social networking sites daily. More importantly, Indians spend more time on social media than they do using personal email. According to the study, an equal number spend up to an hour on social networking and email. However while just 8 percent spend between an hour and three hours on personal email, 20 percent spend the same time on social media sites.

“Social media is now ingrained in the way tech savvy Indians live their lives. With its ability to play multiple roles in an individual’s life by enabling shared experiences, creating linkages between communities and satisfying the need to be networked, its role in creating a deeper engagement is a boon to marketing," said Adrian Terron, Vice President of Global Communications and Marketing for Nielsen.
“The social web appears to have gone beyond supplementing communication. Online Indians today are using social media to facilitate activities that range from leisure like entertainment, improving their livelihood through job searches and researching prospective partners,” said Suhale Kapoor, EVP, AbsolutData.
What Social Growth Means for Brands in India
Social media is also gathering momentum rapidly. Based on the current rate of growth and the intention of online Indians to participate in social media, the study estimates that over the next six months 45,000 online Indians intend to join social networking sites each day.
When asked about the awareness of brands on social media, a fourth of online Indians were able to recall brands using social media. Of those consumers who are on social networking sites, a small but growing number claim to be following brands on these platforms.
“This indicates that no single brand ‘owns’ the social media space and that the opportunity to become a ‘social’ brand is overwhelming. Given that, having a social media presence connotes ‘innovation’ ‘customer friendliness’ and a sense of 'cool,' brands should only ignore this aspect at their own peril,” continued Terron.

Brand engagement through social media on the rise
Nearly 40 million Indians are using online reviews to inform purchase decisions – 67 percent of Indians who are on the web use online reviews to help them make purchases. As personal opinion gains currency on the social web, online users are seeking various outlets to express themselves, be it blogs or social media sites.
Increasingly, Indians also want brands to communicate with them using social media. 60 percent Indians who are social media users are open to being approached by brands indicating that social media has the ability to change the dynamic between brands and consumers who are typically time-starved and may consider traditional forms of advertising obtrusive and undesirable.
This emerging behavior points to the fact that brands need to deliver on consumer expectations much more than ever before, in a world where consumer opinion and brand advocacy, or criticism propagates through social networks much faster than ever before.

 

Source: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2011/indians-now-spend-more-time-on-social-media-sites-than-on-personal-email.html

Social Networking using SmartPhones in India

Social Networking is one of the top activities for smartphone users in India, fueled by the simultaneous growth of social media and smartphone adoption in the country. Social networking apps offer seamless integration with other phone functions enabling instant photo sharing, updates, and website links and more.
Nielsen Informate analysis of social networking usage trends for Android smartphone users in India uncovered the following insights.

1. Social Networking properties (apps/sites) are the most accessed, second only to search
2. Facebook leads the list, Google+ comes in second
3. One in three Facebook users does not use any other Social Networking property
4. The Facebook app is very sticky with an average user logging in 17 days a month
5. While Facebook is used throughout the day, engagement levels peak late night

A whopping 93% of Android smartphone users in India use social networking on their smartphones.

Facebook is the dominant Social Networking property with a reach that’s more than 5 times higher than its nearest competitor - Google+.

A sign of Facebook’s domination is that one in three Facebook users doesn’t use any other Social Networking property on the smartphone.

The more preferred way to access Facebook is through the app. Integration with other Social Networking properties and with phone features (eg., camera, browser) make the app a convenient one stop solution.

A high share of Facebook users access the app throughout the day. The engagement levels, however, peak late at night.

 

 Source:  http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/smart-and-social-android-phones-in-india.html

Men do Web Browsing, Women do Texting with their SmartPhones

Mobile Insights notes that in India, women spend the same amount of time on their smartphones as compared to men. However, there are sharp contrasts in how they use their phones.

• Men spend 50 percent more time browsing the web on their smartphones than women.
• Women spend 3 hours more on calls every month as compared to men.
• Women spend 4 times the amount of time men spend on Instant Messaging (Chat) applications.
• Men experiment more with apps – they install, on an average, 16 applications in a month compared to just 11 by women.

Calls & Messaging

Women spend nearly 20 hours a month on calls and messaging which is almost 33 percent more than time spent by men on the same activity. Also, incoming and outgoing calls both last longer among women.

Web Browsing

Men spend 50 percent more time browsing on their smartphones than women. The average number of websites visited by men is 20 in a month compared to just 14 among women. However, women prefer social sites more than men as 43 percent of web pages visited by women are social networking sites, compared to just 32 percent for men.

Online Applications

Women use online apps substantially higher compared to men, driven mainly by chat apps such as WhatsApp Messenger (which women use three times as much as men), Google Talk and Nimbuzz. Men however, don't mind asking for directions on their smartphones, accessing the Google Maps app more than women (45% vs 32%). Men also install more apps than women - 16 applications in a month compared to just 11 by women. For both men and women around 20 percent of all apps installed are online apps.

Source :  http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/smart-and-social-android-phones-in-india.html

Indian Youth Prefer Android. 50% users with Active Data connection

The Indian Smartphone User study was conducted in September and October 2012 across 46 cities in India. Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights polled more than 10,000 smartphone owners as part of this study.

 

Indian Smartphone users prefer Android over other operating systems, which is primarily because of the push Android has received from local brands.

Smartphone use in India is quickly becoming the dominant way many of the country’s 900 million mobile phone users stay connected. In fact, the country may have as many as 40 million of these devices in use by early this year. The dramatic growth is driven by a desire among users to stay connected and have instant access to social networking sites—a global trend that represents an exponential growth opportunity in developing countries.

The Indian Smartphone User study found that 93 percent of smartphone users own only one handset, making it their single source of infotainment on the go. The study also found that smartphone users in India overwhelmingly prefer mobile devices that operate on the Android operating system, which highlights Indian consumers’ desire for a platform that is open and available across multiple brands and prices. While Symbian usage is also high in India, Windows, BlackBerry and iOS devices each only have single-digit market shares.

 
 This study by Nielsen finds that 93% of smartphone users own only one handset and while only 3 percent of respondents who participated in the study in the last quarter of 2012 said they owned a tablet, 11 percent said they intended to purchase one.
  
Tablet Owners:
Consumer interest in tablets is also on the rise. While only 3 percent of respondents who participated in the study in the last quarter of 2012 said they owned a tablet, 11 percent said they intended to purchase one. Consumers are also spending notably more time on their tablets than their Android smartphones—about an hour more.

 

Users Prefer Paying for Game, Chat and Music Apps:

 

 voice and text communication via smartphone in India is declining. In fact, voice calls and texting accounted for only 25 percent of smartphone usage; multimedia, games, apps and Internet browsing made up the rest. Among apps, consumers prefer games, particularly with respect to paid apps. Games were the most popular category among paid apps, with nearly three out of five users (58%) paying for games. Other popular paid app categories among smartphone users include chat and instant messaging (53%) and streaming music (45%).




 

50% have Mobile Internet Access

Mobile Internet connectivity and smartphone usage go hand in hand, but only half of the smartphone users polled have active data access. While this percentage may be significantly higher than the mobile data penetration for feature phone users, it indicates that millions of smartphone users still don’t have access to mobile Internet connectivity.
It is interesting to note that the youth are quick to adopt data connectivity on their smartphones, as more than
half of all data users are younger than 25.

 

 Source: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2013/smartphones-keep-users-in-india-plugged-in.html

 

Mobile Opportunities

OPPORTUNITIES OVERVIEW

 Mobile works at a very personal level, allowing brands to develop an on- going dialogue with their customers to build brand loyalty

 Used for either branding or direct response

–Branding: full-screen interstitials, expandables, mobile video with pre-, mid-, post-roll or live event production, and original branded content in branded channels

–DR: mobile clubs, loyalty programs, mobile CRM, contests, sweepstakes, on-pack, retail POS, hook-ins to supply chain management system on retail level

 Integration of traditional and digital media

–Mobile marketing campaigns can be optimized and uniquely measured (via SMS) across all media formats – TV, print, OOH, online, mobile, etc.

Areas of opportunities

Internet Banners / Text links

-          Similarly to online advertising, purchase banners, textlinks, or pre-roll video to run across publishers’ mobile sites

-          Buying done at the site/publisher and network levels

SMS/MMS 

Allows advertisers to:

-          Promote the brand and create an opportunity to interact with the audience 

-            SMS/MMS can also be integrated with other forms of digital media such as console gaming

-          Evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns through response rates

-          Get instant response at points of interest and collect valuable customer data 

3^rd Party Application Sponsorships

-          Reach a captivated audience of mobile consumers within trusted applications

-          Can choose applications and devices

Search

-          5.2 million US mobile search users

-          Expected to grow to 56.3 million by 2013

Proximity/Location-Based

Location-Based Services (LBS): utilize the geographical position of the mobile device

-          Location based maps of user’s current location, routing services to provide directions

-          Real time information about traffic conditions

-          Identification of particular points of interest based on user preferences

-          Interactive POS/POI: interactive screen on store front showing a 3D ‘virtual reality store’ and product promotions

-          Users can find out more about particular products, their functionality and their price

-          Can text a short code on their mobile to receive a discount voucher for any product promotions, to redeem when the shop reopens

M-Commerce:

-          Ability to conduct financial transactions using mobile devices

-          Currently, mobile content purchase and delivery mainly consists of the sale of ringtones, wallpapers, and games for mobile phones

-          Nokia is working to develop phones that will allow consumers to pay for items (or pay each other) via text messages or other cell phone applications, similar to Exxon Mobile’s Speedpass where consumers can “swipe ‘n’ go”

Proprietary Applications

Software programs that are downloaded installed and perform specific tasks on a mobile device

-          (Multi)media and entertainment

-          Games

-          Social networking

-          Productivity

-          Utilities

-          Education and reference

Couponing

Choose target audience

Demographics:

-          Age

-          Gender

-          HH Income

-          Geography

-          Education

-          Presence of Children

-          Ethnicity

-          Marital Status

Content Categories:

-          Search & Directories

-          News & Finance

-          Entertainment

-          Mobile Communications

-          Premium Content & Downloads

-          Sports

-          Weather

Behaviors:

-          Categories of high-propensity Individuals.

-          Based on mobile web browsing activity & premium mobile content purchase

Geographic

-          Zip code, DMA, state, country

-          Location-based targeting

-          Target users based on their exact location and serve them ads for restaurants, attractions, stores, etc. in their nearby vicinity

Device Targeting

-          Target based on type of device as well as mobile carrier

Ex. Target only iPhone users

Custom Targeting

-          Many publishers can work with advertisers to provide a combination of traditional targeting options

-           

 

Mobile Advertising: Detailed Analysis

Snapshot of Current US Market:

• US mobile penetration: 90%
• US mobile content subscribers with Internet access: 137 million
• The US mobile Internet audience stands at 67 million, 56% (37.5M) of which are smartphone owners.
• 50% of consumers expect to increase time spent on the mobile web in next 6 months
• 65% say mobile Internet is the most important feature when considering a new phone purchase
• According to Nielsen Mobile, 55% of mobile phone buyers in the second half of 2009 bought a smartphone or web enabled phone.

Mobile advertising provides marketers with more efficient, memorable ways to engage with and build brand loyalty with consumers.

Mobile Internet Advertising has Distinct Advantages Over Online Ads:

1.    Lack of clutter. In online, multiple ads served concurrently, distracting the viewer from focusing on one message. Mobile web pages only display one ad at a time. The issue of clutter – long the bane of many an online media buyer – is therefore eliminated. 2.    Size. Mobile ad units are proportionally larger to the screen than in online, making ads harder to miss and more impactful. 3.    Personalization. Mobile phone users are more engaged with ads on a mobile device because of the personal nature of a cell phone. 4.    Mobility. Marketers can use mobile display advertising to reach consumers when they are on the move and closest to the point of purchase.

Benefits of executing a mobile marketing strategy:

Enhance multi channel marketing efforts Provide an easy and immediate channel for consumers to buy, inquire or otherwise engage Build a one-to-one relationship with the consumer Build brand awareness, preference and purchase intent Extend special offers and promotions, often using LBS Stimulate word of mouth and social media activity Promote timely, personalized and location specific offers Improve customer service Improve the convenience of shopping Generate an opt-in database for future direct response marketing initiatives Extend print, TV, radio and outdoor campaigns by giving users an interactive channel through which to immediately engage.

Strengthen Customer Data:

Mobile campaigns also allow marketers to build valuable customer databases. Such opt-in is extremely valuable for obvious reasons:

1) Mobile is the first true one-to-one marketing channel. Mobile devices are rarely shared the way PCs are.

2) Users rarely change their number now that mobile phone numbers are portable, especially when compared to email or postal addresses.

Most mobile phone owners have their device within arm's reach 95% of the time over any 24 hour period. Marketers can therefore reach mobile users literally anytime of day.

But when is best? Much like they do in search, mobile users actually tell us when is the best time to reach them. Users generally make use of their mobile phone while out, often shopping, or simply to kill time. These are the brief moments when they are most open to receiving relevant ads.

With a mobile ad network, marketers can take advantage of dayparting and day of week targeting to serve ads to potential customers at both the right place and the right time.

SmatPhone Consumer Behaviour: How Users are using the device & which is getting the most attention

Years ago, when smartphones were introduced to the market, they were promoted as devices to help the busy, on-the-go, business professional.  It was a tool primarily made available to access one’s email, calendar and contacts when away from the desk or travelling. Today, that is far from the case – they are integrated into the daily lives of all types of consumers, and Compete is tracking that changing behavior.


For starters, consumers’ primary usage of their smartphones is for reasons of personal productivity and entertainment. In fact, when asked how much time is spent on personal use (with the remaining being on business) 74% of smartphone owners indicated they are using their device primarily for personal reasons

The fact that over 1 in 5 smartphone owners would be interested in these top-5 is very promising for the mobile marketing industry, considering that it is still in its early stages.  Brands need to focus on engaging and driving behavior of these “early adopters” in order to help bring these concepts to mass market. 

Cosumers were most interested in receiving grocery coupons (36%), scanable barcodes (29%), offers to save and pursue at leisure (26%), movie theater offers (26%), and ads via SMS when going by a retailer with a promotion / coupon (21%).